You’re About To Be Motivated
If you’re walking through a hard time and wonder if you’ll ever be able to tell the story, you need to meet Dr. LaVon Wright Bracy. Not only does she share her compelling story of desegregating Gainesville High School in 1964, she tells us the process of writing a children’s book about her experience some 50 years later. Most of us are struggling through the challenges of 2020. Bracy has been there, seen it, lived it and wrote the story. For those of us that need to be encouraged to keep going, she’s got you. For those that need the spark to tell your own story, pick up a pen. You’re about to be motivated.
Dr. LaVon Bracy
Show Notes
This week’s guest: Dr. LaVon Wright Bracy. She was the first African American to integrate graduate from Gainesville High School in Gainesville Florida 1964.
In May, 2004, she was recognized by AARP at the Library of Congress during the 50 year celebration of the 1954 US Supreme Court – Brown vs. Board education.
Dr. Bracy received her Bachelor of Science (B.S.) from Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee her Masters of Education from the University of Miami and her Doctorate of Education (Ed.D.) from University of Florida, Gainesville.
She worked as a college administrator, spent ten years a as Assistant Managing Director for the office of homeless for the City of Philadelphia. When she & her family relocated to Orlando area she & her husband co-founded ofNew Covenant Baptist Church of Orlando .
She has personally registered thousands of voters, and just this week she led a march from Jones High School to the Amway Center of first time voters.
I got to talk with her about her children’s book, “A Brave Little Cookie”. As a child her nickname was Cookie and in this illustrated book she shares her experience of integrating Gainesville High School. It’s an incredible story and for me it was a stunning conversation.
StoryMaven Takeaways:
I was struck by how empowered I felt to be brave. To keep going no matter what.
Some things for you and I as storytellers to take away:
Find the thing in your story that anyone can relate to. Even if we haven’t experienced the same circumstances, we have likely experienced the feeling underneath the circumstances.
Paint the picture. The rich detail of Dr. Bracy’s story. I’ve seen footage and images of students integrating schools in the sixties. But I was struck by her brother’s life in his all Black high school and the comparison of her year of silence. I could really see the sacrifice being asked of these students — which one of us would give up football, the student government and our three girlfriends for a year of silence?
Telling your story requires bravery. Dr. Bracy continued to be brave — stepping out to tell her story to children, figuring out how to write a children’s book, find an illustrator, and then to share the book in a new way during Covid-19.
And the most important lesson of all: if you don’t tell your story, someone else may tell it for you and then it won’t be yours anymore.
Links:
